Not quite Devil’s Night: Cheetos is using Street View to digitally TP houses

Google Maps is one of those services that works as a quick glance app or a huge service to plot out entire vacations and daily plans in. Whether you’re using it for something serious or just wandering around in the Street View service, Maps is a lot of fun to use. The folks at Cheetos have figured out a new use for Google Maps, and have set up a fun new site as a part of their big Halloween kick off.

Mostly harmless vandalism and trick-or-treating go hand in hand for some. Wrecked pumpkins in the street, rolls of TP covering the lawn, and the occasional eviscerate scarecrow on the steps of a local business. It’s not fun for those that have to clean things up, and it’s really not fun if you get caught, but it’s one of those things that happen and tend to get laughed about later on. Cheetos wants to move this vandalism to the digital world, and their Project TP website is either a fun way of accomplishing that or the perfect way to plan actual targets for an all out TP assault.

The app itself is fairly simple. Punch in address, confirm the house you want to TP, and press a button. There’s some fun animation to make it feel like you’re in mission control, and in the end you get a photo of the house after it has been thoroughly covered. The app does a decent job picking hang point for TP to make it seem mostly realistic, but if you have a lot of trees in the background you’ll notice things look kind of odd. It’s a fun thing to share, and a great example of how Google Maps can be used for more than just directions.